A Second Chance in Life
by Bakathief
Summary: In a modern world, there are still traces of animal spirits, called anima. When Kaito and Conan are confronted with a long forgotten past, they have to adapt themselves to this new life.
1. Prologue

The newest Story from the authors of Catboys and Bloody Destiny.  
>The main characters in this story are Conan Edogawa and Kaito Kuroba.<br>All the other characters will be from the DC and MK universes, save from the few OCs.  
>We hope you enjoy it. (^^)<p>

DC and MK belong to Gosho Aoyama  
>The idea and the OCs belong to the authors<p>

Prologue

It was a usual summer day at Ekoda High, which meant it was hot out. Really hot. Which didn't make the PE lessons any easier. Thank god they had showers and that most of the students used them. One of those students happened to be Kuroba Kaito, magician, prankster of the school, popular with the girls, and feared by a certain British detective.

The magician came out of the shower while rubbing his wet hair with a white towel, another towel folded around his hips. A few drops of water were still dripping down from his hair, which was soon dry, while his soft skin still seemed to be a little damp. The magician walked over to his locker and put the towel around his neck while looking for his clothes in his bag.

He looked just like every other student, except for the tattoo-like marks on his shoulders. They looked like a black crescent moon with five stripes spreading from the outside. They were rarely seen since the school uniform always had sleeves, and most of the students didn't bother to look because it was Kuroba and Kuroba was always... special. But not in a bad way, everyone liked him. Well, almost everyone.

When Kaito collected all of his clothes, he took the towel, which was still hanging around his neck, and ran it through his hair once more. That shower felt better than one after a heist, leaving him feeling rather refreshed. But, there was also some other feeling odd feeling, like he was being watched. He didn't need to look to see that it was blond detective. Geez, couldn't the blond stop stalking him at least while he was changing?

Hakuba Saguru, British high school detective and part the minority that thought of the magician as a major pain in the ass, was glancing over the door of his locker at his trickster classmate, pondering over the new discovery he had just made about his adversary. He wouldn't have thought that Kuroba was into tattoos, but it appeared that way. Getting more and more curious, he walked up to Kuroba and took a good look at his new discovery.

Slowly, the thief started to put on some clothes, starting with boxers, but soon he couldn't ignore the bothersome detective anymore. Well, at least he left him some space to get at least a little dressed up.

"Well..." Kuroba slowly started, glancing at the detective, "I'm not quite sure why you're getting closer and closer to me." Kaito said raising an eyebrow, followed by his usual smirk.

"Sorry to tell you this, but I do still prefer girls. Hey, maybe you could wear a skirt. Then I could think about it." Of course, Kuroba was joking, but the Brit was always good for a joke, or two... or maybe fifty. But seriously, why was the detective being so noisy again? The magician followed where Hakuba's eyes were looking and wasn't all that surprised. He thought Hakuba had seen them already since he was already looking for all information he could get from Kaito. Seems like he still hasn't seen everything. Poor detective.

By now Hakuba was pretty good at ignoring whatever mischief Kuroba was throwing at him and Hakuba knew he needed it. He sighed and glared at him.

"As you might know, I'm British, not Scottish. And they wear kilts by the way, not skirts." Hakuba told him with a serious face, while straightening the shirt of his school uniform. How the magician could leave the first few buttons of his shirt opened was beyond him. "I just wondered why you of all people would have gotten yourself such a recognizable tattoo. It's quite… _unique_to say the least." he said and took a closer look again, memorizing it in case he could prove a certain thief to having the exact same tattoo in the same place.

When the blond youth explained the skirt-subject to the other one, Kaito started pouting. So, no skirts for Hakuba, just kilts. He'll remember that for the next time someone's talking about Scots. Heh, he was looking forward to that. The magician just grinned when Hakuba started talking about his 'tattoos', and in the very same moment he faced the mirror in front of him again and put his white shirt on, which covered those two marks that the blond took so much interest in.

"How nice of you, Hakuba-kun. I take that as a compliment." Kaito said with a grin. "But now I feel bad for you, I didn't know you want some for yourself so badly." It's not like the Brit said anything quite like that, but he needed some fun after those sport lessons. Soon the thief was all dressed up again so he could give Hakuba all the attention he wanted. "Well, I would make you some tattoos but since I don't have a license or anything like that, I consider that a bad idea. Which doesn't mean I don't know how to make you feel better, just leave it to me." the messy-haired teen looked at him with this wicked grin of his and only seconds later the whole closet was covered in pink smoke. Irritated, the other students looked around, trying to see something or at least tried to protect themselves from the prankster. Slowly, the smoke disappeared and all the students checked if Kuroba did something to them, but no, he only did Hakuba a favour and stood right behind his artwork, grinning proudly.

"Who would've guessed some paint would suit you that well?" Kaito said, still grinning. Why he was saying that? Well, now the blond had some colour on his skin, probably more than he ever wanted. A few Kid-doodles here and there, in all kind of different colours, since he knew how much he loved the thief in white. He also painted some hearts and roses, as well as the flag of Great Britain on his forehead. But still, the Kid-doodles were almost everywhere, and the thief had to admit, he was quite proud of that, since he was a big fan of the white gentleman.

The detective took one look down at his body and made a face.

_He couldn't just give me a straight answer for once, huh? Why am still hoping for miracles...? And why does he always need to...__**argh**__! _Hakuba thought irritably.

With a vein throbbing on his forehead, Hakuba slowly raised his head and _glared _at the trickster in front of him.

"Kurobaaa...", he warned the magician in a low voice, fists shaking, the desire to strangle the thief even more present than normal.

Laughing, the thief took a look at his masterpiece again and started to sigh over-dramatically. "Unfortunately they won't last forever, since they're fake. But I bet they'll last for at least one or two weeks." Kaito assured the Brit and patted him on the back. Oh, how he loved his job, loved it when stupid Hakuba got all angry. But he literally asked for it, so it's not completely Kaito's fault, at least in the magician's opinion. The detective should loosen up a little anyway. Kaito took the bag with his dirty sport clothes and hung it over his shoulder.

"You better hurry a little, the next lesson is starting soon and I know how you hate being late." Yup, he really loved teasing the Brit. "See ya later, Hakuba-kun~" the messy-haired teen sing-sang and left the closet.

Hakuba grumbled as he watched Kuroba leaving. _Great, now, I have to shower again...stupid thief. I'll get him on the heist tonight. _Hakuba thought, sighing as he undressed himself again and went back to the showers. At least he wouldn't have to wash his hair again. The prankster could have messed with that as well, he often did.

A quick shower later and he was clean of any Kid signatures, hearts and whatever else he had on his body moments ago. When he was dressed again, Hakuba hurried towards the classroom. He was still on time of course, he would rather not come at all than being too late. Giving Kuroba a death glare when he entered, he walked straight up to his desk and sat down.

_But still, I wonder...I've never seen those kind of tattoos before and it's highly unusual for Kuroba to have something that recognizable on his body._ Hakuba mused to himself._ Is there something else going on? If yes, it looks like getting the truth from Kuroba would impossible this time...again. Who else could know? Probably Nakamori-chan. I'll have to ask her later, maybe after school._ He thought. Just then, their history teacher entered the classroom.

Class was boring and terribly long, as always, and Kaito didn't spend much time thinking about Hakuba and his curiosity. It's not like he'll find out anything just because he saw them. He had other things to worry about, like the upcoming heist tonight or how to make this lesson at least a little entertaining.

Soon, Kaito had enough of Napoleon and his friends and decided to take control of the lesson. The magician was sure that most of the other students wouldn't mind anyway (at least from those, who were still awake). At the end of the lesson the teacher was gone - nobody wanted to ask, where _exactly_ he had gone - and everyone was packing to finally enjoy the afternoon. Most of them had cram school in the evening but a certain Kuroba Kaito had other plans that which involved the police and a pretty diamond.

Before Kuroba left, he looked around for his childhood-friend Nakamori Aoko, but since she seemed to be busy talking to Keiko and some other friends, he decided to leave.

At home there was still so much to do and the magician wanted everything to be perfect, like always. So, when the inspector's daughter was finally about to leave and say goodbye to her friends, she noticed that her best friend had already left.

_That Baka, leaving without a word! _She thought angrily and plotted the next mob-chase.

Just when she was about to leave the classroom, Aoko saw somebody else waiting at front of the door. The blond detective usually went home alone, so she was more than a little curious as to why he waiting there.

"I'm sorry to bother you, Nakamori-chan, but I need to talk to you.", he started and moved to walk alongside the other through the hallways towards the exit. "It's actually a question about Kuroba-kun. Today, after PE, I noticed these two tattoos on both of his shoulders, but he wouldn't tell me why he got them. Since I'm sure that not a lot of people in our class know about them, I hoped that at least you would know. You are his childhood-friend after all."

Aoko listened to the other and was happy that she didn't need to walk alone this time. Hakuba was a nice guy, always polite so mature, completely different from her best friend. When he started asking about Kaito, however, she first thought it was about him being Kaitou Kid, which would've ruined her mood. Luckily - or not - it was about something else. The brown-haired girl couldn't tell him the whole truth but it seemed like the blond was very interested in the tattoos.

"I didn't know you would be interested in those. Well..." she said, thinking about how to word what she wanted to say. "You could say it's a kind of memento from his father. It's not like Kaito likes tattoos or piercings, so it has nothing to do with fashion or anything. So don't get the wrong idea."

It really was a memento from his father and he had them for as long as she could remember. Aoko was able to remember the day she saw them for the first time very well and she was quickly able to get used to them. To the secret behind them.

He considered her words carefully. The way she answered gave him the impression that she knew exactly what they were and wasn't willing to tell him the truth about them.

_At least they don't seem to have anything to do with his illegal night activities._ Hakuba thought._ But at least I know that there is more about them than some kind of fashion statement. Though there's still the question as to what they are._

After he gave her his sincere thanks, he walked her towards her house, seeing as how he was a gentleman and all. When they parted, Hakuba wished her father good luck at tonight's heist, despite wanting to capture the moonlit thief himself.

As he walked down the street to his own house, the blond pondered about what the inspector's daughter just told him.

_A memento from his father? Isn't it a little odd to give something like a tattoo as a memento to a child? Kuroba must have been what...? Nine years old? That's way too early for a tattoo, especially since it's illegal to have a tattoo at this age. So there has to be something else about it...I'll have to look into that more. But not today, I have to prepare for tonight's heist as well. So I guess I'll take a look into the matter at the library tomorrow._

With that thought in mind, Hakuba went into his house, changed from his school uniform to more regular, but still formal looking, clothes and took the next bus to the museum, where the heist would occur hours later.

While Hakuba and the police prepared for the phantom's heist, the thief himself also got prepared. The inspector spent most of the time with pulling at his comrades' faces and pinching them, not knowing that the said thief was listening and watching the whole time.

About midnight, the usual show began. It was really entertaining, at least for Kid, who tricked the whole police force, including Hakuba, and also got the big jewel of tonight's heist. This night, it seemed like Hakuba was his main target, since the other members of the police only got to wear a pink uniform, but Hakuba also received nice pink hair, reminding one of cotton candy.

Hmm~ The thief was getting hungry. So with no further delays, Kaito vanished in front of the police force, escaping through a nearby window while leaving a dummy for his beloved police. A loud "See ya!" sounded throughout the area, even though the thief wasn't visible anymore.

Kid flew through the night on his glider while feeling the night air brush against his face. The joy filled grin that was on his face didn't leave for a few minutes, and he was still chuckling about the annoyed look on Hakuba's face. A few houses away, he landed in a dark alley and in less than three seconds the white phantom thief turned into the high school student Kuroba Kaito. Of course he wore a cap since there wasn't any need to show his face so freely when Kids heist happened just minutes ago. When Kaito checked the gem (unfortunately not Pandora) and was about to leave, he suddenly heard a noise... coming from above. Slowly he raised his head, widening his eyes in shock.

_Please tell me that this man up there just wants to enjoy the view. _He thought hopefully.

Unfortunately for the magician, he was wrong.


	2. Act I Chapter I  Quarrelings

**Act 1 - Chapter 1**

_A few weeks later_

Oh how he loved school. Boring teachers, boring lessons, boring student's… geez, who was he kidding? Everything was boring. He preferred to look out at the clouds instead of listen to the teacher lecture. Kaito Kuroba yawned, a sleepy look on his face as he glanced around the classroom, wondering if he should be worried that the other students actually showed interest in this stupid lesson.

To explain a little more, they had their Biology lesson right now and the teacher, Dr. Teichi Yamata, told them what they should be able to do in his oh-so-great lab. Even though he sounded really excited about this topic, he explained his ideas like a little girl who was dreaming about her castle and a handsome prince. To Kaito, genetic engineering was a stupid idea and totally idiotic.

Thinking that this would help humans was just ridiculous. Why was this topic in their lesson? Not to mention that this teacher just made everything worse.

Kaito looked around the classroom again, noticing that at least a few students realized that this guy was speaking nonsense and used the time for something more useful, like eating the rest of their lunch, doing homework for the next lesson, learning the Chinese vocabularies (well, that isn't really useful either since this kind of old literature is also dead) and, naturally, sleeping. Unfortunately, he was bored and not tired, so he had to find something else to keep himself entertained. Aoko, who was sitting right behind him, knowing that her best friend didn't give a damn about genetic engineering, but also aware of the fact that right now in this very moment the infamous magician was looking for entertainment. And that was never a good thing. Of course, he knew that if he made trouble, Aoko would punish him. But when did the messy-haired boy ever really care about that? So, ignoring that "I'll send you to hospital with my mob" look of his oh so lovely childhood-friend, he started making things more interesting in his style, which was always fun, because it always included torturing Saguru Hakuba.  
>In the middle of Yamata-sensei's talk, Kaito raised his hand and spoke up before the teacher could even say something to him.<p>

"Yamata-sensei, I have a question," He said. With that said, he had the full attention of the whole class, everyone turning their heads into Kurobas direction, "That genetic thing you were talking about... That's how all the super heroes were born, right? You know, those who can fly and fire red laser beams out of their eyes? And don't forget the super strength!" he chirped.

Chuckles and giggles were heard, exactly what the magician sought for. But the curtains just opened! The show's just began! The teacher was so surprised up by the questions, not sure if his student was serious or not, but slowly he pulled himself together.

"Kuroba-kun, those _superheroes_ are fictional characters and aren't related in any way to reality while genetic engineering-"

"What? Of course they're real!" Kaito inquired immediately after Yamata-sensei was about to start on that nonsense again. That brought about more laughter from most students, except the blond detective, who just sighed. Apparently he already sensed that there was more to come. "Heroes are everywhere! Let me show you!" Kaito said enthusiastically.

Everyone's vision was obscured by pink smoke, no longer able to see their hands in front their face. Typical Kuroba. Soon, the smoke cleared and everyone slowly gazed at the magician's work and saw that wide grin plastered on his face, which made a few of his victims even more angry. What had happened was pretty hard to miss.

The messy-haired teen had promised the doctor to show him that superheroes were real, and he always kept his promises. Instead of the normal students, the classroom was crowded with - what did he call it? - _fictional characters_. So, who was taking part in this heroic round?

Hakuba was dressed in a typical bodysuit, with the pattern of Great Britain's flag on it, wearing a red mask and blue boots that reached over his knees. Captain Britain was really fitting for him, even though it seemed like he already wanted to get rid of the mask. Obviously the blond didn't care about his true identity. What a shame.

Wonder Woman was here as well! How nice! Though, she was busy looking for a mop, but fortunately the magician hid that one in a safe place. Why would Wonder Woman need a mop anyway? She was said to be incredibly strong, no?

Besides Akako, really everyone in the room was dressed up like a cosplayer from an American comic convention, even the teacher revealed his true form - Dr Doom! _Lovely!_ Really fitting for the doctor, at, least in Kaito's opinion. But since his opinion was the only one that mattered at that moment, everything was just fine. Oh, no, he forgot somebody!

"I almost forgot to reveal my true identity!" the magician exclaimed, placing his right fist into his left palm before snapping his fingers causing another cloud of cotton candy pink smoke to appear, making a few of the heroes cough again. Wonder Woman was already yelling for Kaito, the rage clear in her voice. The spot where the boy stood seconds ago, however, was now empty, his laughter sounding from the ceiling. Everyone raised their heads up and stared at the ceiling at the most extraordinaire magician living in Japan, no, living on the whole world.

He was hanging- no, sitting their, upside-down, laughing and all dressed up in a Batman suit, grinning like a mad lunatic that he was.

By then, Aoko had abandoned her search for the mop, realizing that her mischievous childhood friend had probably hidden the cleaning utensil so that she wouldn't be able to use it on him. If he didn't give it back, they'd need a new one...again. She broke enough of them anyway.

When she returned to the classroom and saw her friend hanging from the ceiling, she instantly dashed for him, got a good grip on his cape and pulled as strongly as she could.

Before Kaito could even realize that his friend had returned, she already pulled him down and he fell down with a loud crash onto the tables. _Ow... Note to self:_ he thought, groaning. _Pay better attention to Aoko when pulling pranks._ Kaito grimaced a bit, but quickly went back to his usual grin. Luckily he was used to this kind of punishment from his childhood friend, though, that probably wasn't even the worst of it.

Quickly, the magician got to his feet, only to come face to face with the dangerous glare of his best friend. And hey, was that a table in her hands? So she really was super-strong. Oh boy.

The magician went over the options he had: either be smashed by the Japanese Wonder Woman or obey her. Kaito pictured Aoko again and somehow, deciding was pretty easy.

"Spare me my life and you'll get back your clothes!"

She said nothing, and only continued to glare.

"Alright, the others, too." He said through a sigh, disappointed.

Slowly, _really slowly_, she put the table back on the ground, but she was steaming in rage. By that point, their classmates had backed off minutes ago.

Kaito sighed in frustration and after one more snap, the whole classroom was covered in pink smoke again and everyone was back in their normal uniforms once the smoke clear, much to Kaito's disappointment. Oh well. At least he had been smart enough to keep the mop hidden from his friend.

Apparently, Aoko was still planning to kill him, but was interrupted by the school bell before she could. Everyone looked up at the clock and then cheered before they began to pack up their bags., while Kaito just gave Aoko another one of his cheeky grins. _Bam!_ Okay, so now he had a new bump on his head. Maybe, just maybe, he deserved that one.

Kaito packed his stuff and looked around the room one more time, noticing that their crazy teacher seemed to have left already as well. Not like it bothered Kaito, he didn't like the guy anyway. Actually, he was glad that he didn't make a big fuss about his little costume party.

The magician made his way to the door, his bag tossed over his shoulder as he watched how Aoko packed her books, too, also noticing her glance over to the cleaning-locker. Clearly she was missing her mop, and Kaito just took this as a warning: that it should be kept hidden for some more time. "You coming, Aoko?" he asked with half lidded eyes, checking his watch again. The classroom was already empty, and through the window you could see the beginning of dusk, some students playing tennis or soccer in the fields or attending other club activities. But the magician had other plans for today.

Slamming her bag shut, she marched towards the door, throwing one mean look at the magician and otherwise completely ignored him. Sometimes, that helped a lot more than screaming at him, because he rarely listened anyway.

She made a note to call Keiko later; she needed a new mop and fast. Seeing as how she doubted she would ever see that mop again, they needed a new one from the janitor. Aoko wasn't even able to count the number of times she went to his office to get a new one, so he wouldn't even give her a new one, when she broke one again. He knew exactly what she was using it most of the time. She usually asked Keiko or Hakuba-kun to get a new one. But Hakuba-kun was going to be tired tomrrow morning because of the Kid heist tonight, so she'd rather ask Keiko.

By the time Aoko snapped out of her musings, Kaito was already beside her, trying to get her attention. They were already down by the lockers and she hadn't even noticed him, which was quite a feat by itself.

Kaito tried talking to her, but after noticing that she wasn't even listening he, instead, tried to get her attention, sighing in annoyance when she was finally looked at him again with those big innocent eyes. It only took a few seconds until she remembered that she was supposed to be angry at him, so she huffed and changed from her slippers into her normal shoes, causing Kaito to roll his eyes.

"Already spacing out after classes, are we? Or are you still mad at me?" Kaito asked while he put on his own shoes, looking at his friend with raised brows. "Why not just skip the boring silence, we both know that you can't be mad at me for long." he said, a small grin tugging at his lips.

Since he always knew how to get one's attention, ignoring Kaito never worked very well. People were usually better off giving up rather quickly, anyways. Otherwise they'd regret it later, seeing as how Kaito has his ways of getting peoples attention.

Together they left the school and Kaito watched his best friend, who seemed like she was thinking about which scolding or punishment the magician deserved most. He really did a good job in hiding that mop, it saved him from those murderous moves of Aoko's.

By now they were walking alongside a river with some other students who were talking excitingly about the best soccer player in Japan or the latest release of the Shonen Jump magazine. He even overheard that group of girls behind him chatting about the upcoming Kid heist tonight and what a charming and talented gentleman the thief was, which put another grin on his face.

However, when Aoko finally started talking again, he knew better than to ignore her when she was already agitated and turned his head to met her eyes.

During the silence between the two, Aoko had also listened to the other teenagers chattering away. It was quite relaxing in a way, hearing the normal issues of teenagers since her own life wasn't that normal compared to others, thanks to the mischief-maker Kaito and her father chasing that illusive thief Kid.

But when the girls started swooning over her personal enemy, her bad mood returned and she scowled at the ground, silently cursing the thief. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Kaito's widespread grin and her scowl turned towards him.

"Do you have to support that guy? It's bad enough that he has so many fan girls," she complained, despite knowing she wouldn't change anything about his admiration for the criminal. But one thing she knew for sure was if he started to swoon over Kid, she would surely get rid of all her pent up anger in a few minutes.

"It's not my fault that he's so awesome," Kaito explained while shrugging. Well, somehow it was his fault that Kid was such a talented gentleman-thief, but he couldn't possibly tell her that. Not now... and probably not anytime soon, unless he wanted to die really quickly and painfully. "So, I guess your father is already all fired up at the museum?" Kaito asked, changing the subject slightly. "He sure is lucky to have a daughter who brings him his lunch all the time. Why do I never get such a treat? After all, I'm a hard working magician," said magician told her, a cocky grin on his lips. In his mind, the picture of Aoko serving Kid was actually rather amusing... At least for him. The mop-swinging girl would just beat him up again, until he wouldn't need to be served ever again.

Aoko sighed. "Of course he is, like every heist," she answered, grinning, once again getting fired up about catching Kid. "And you don't get such a treat, because, even though you are a magician, you are not hard working, mister," she scolded him and huffed. "If you make a really big magic show, you might get one as well."

Kaito raised one brow at that, but still smiled at her enthusiasm. Luckily her fighting-spirit never dwindled. At least she got something useful from her father and not just swearing in ten different styles. However, he disagreed with her about him being not being hard working. Of course he was! His nightly activities were plenty hard!

The magician snorted and placed one hand in his pocket, while the other one held his bag. "Why would you think that? Of course I'm hard working! Ten minutes ago you saw another of my amazing performances, now didn't you? Tricks don't do themselves. I'm really putting effort into them, as you might have noticed." Only after the words were out of his mouth that he realized that bringing up that incident again wasn't the best idea he'd had. But he was quite convinced about his point.

The immediate response to his teasing was a vein pulsating on her forehead.

"Sooo...you were working hard on playing a trick on the whole class, huh?" she said, her hands balling into fists and shaking, her mouth twisting into a strained smile, "And you seriously thought that I would give you anything else but a good hit on the head for that?"

She picked up the nearest object, in this case a branch from a tree next them.

"KAITOOO! BAKA! Even for thinking that, I'd hit you a hundred times over!" she yelled and hit him on the head really hard with the branch.

Kaito really should have run away the second he noticed her shaking fists, but now that he saw the branch in her hands, he reconsidered the idea of bringing that up again and decided that it was not his best idea, and that he should flee. But by that point it was too late. And just to make this clear: a branch hitting your head with an almost inhuman force was not fun.

The magician yelped in pain and covered his head, protecting it from further damage and covering the new bump. Apparently hiding her mop only reduced the damage level slightly.

"Aoko~" he whined, holding back his whimpers of pain. "For what reason did I deserve such a cruel punishment? You know that kind of _hurts_." the thief said, rubbing his head again. "Besides, it's not my fault that the teacher talks about so much crap. If anyone, he should be the one beaten up by your mops and branches, not _me_!"

Throwing away her replacement mop, after she beat him a few more times with it for good measure, Aoko huffed and pulled his ear. "You totally deserved that one!" she hissed in his ear. "Just because you get bored, everyone else has to live with your pranks? I don't think so! Especially putting us in those costumes." She blushed slightly as she remembering the scarce costume he put her in. "If it hurts so much, you can just not pull your stupid pranks next time, huh?" she challenged grinning, her hands on her hips as she let his ear go. "Then I won't have a reason to hit you."

Kaito suffered through the punishment unwillingly, not even having a chance to escape and yell again when she pulled his ear, right when he thought they'd finally done with the beating-up-the-magician part. Those who passed them probably mistook them for a mother scolding her child, seeing as how Kaito was whining in pain.

"I still think my prank was totally justified! The teachers' talk was only useless crap anyway. It's not like it was anything that was actually worth listening to." Kaito defended, quickly getting some distance after she finally let go of his now red ear and rubbed it gently. Aoko and his mother were about the only ones who still treated him like a little brat when it came to his practical jokes.

Suddenly the magician blinked and quickly looked around until his eyes locked on a little boy, probably about six or seven years old, short ruffled black hair and about the same height as his tantei-kun. He was walking with two other boys on the other side of the river, laughing and chatting happily with them. Slowly, a smile appeared on Kaito's face and he seemed to relax a little again.

The magician eyed the boy a little longer, ignoring the confused Aoko next to him until she pulled his ear down to her _again_, which finally got his attention.

"Kaito?" she asked, confusion in her voice. "Is something wrong? Are you alright?" To her, he seemed fine, but that relaxed expression was quite rare on him. And the fact that she needed to get his attention through pulling his ears was even more rare. That alone was a reason for her to worry about her friend. She looked back and forth from his face to the group of kids and couldn't come to some sort of reasonable explanation for her friend's behavior.

As soon as possible, the magician escaped from her painful grab and glared at the worried girl. "Aoko! What's wrong with you?" he whined, irritated and total ignored her first question. By the time Kaito looked around again for the boy, he was almost out of sight, but quickly he turned his attention back to Aoko. His ear endured enough pain for today, that's for sure. Only then he noticed the worry in her eyes and wondered why that was until it clicked and he realized what was wrong. Well, her worries that something was up were probably right, but still, his ear hurt like it did when Nakamori-keibu screamed right into it with a megaphone.

He looked down at his watch and raised an brow at Aoko. "Instead of tearing my ear off, maybe you should hurry a little if you want to bring that bento to your father before he gets busy," he suggested and started walking again. That actually gave him a funny image in his head of Kid snatching the inspector's lunch away along with the jewel, which caused a grin to spread across his face.

Aoko blinked at him a few times and hurried after him, glancing at her watch.

"Oh no...I really have to hurry. I still have to make that bento," she said worriedly. Luckily, they were already near her house and Kaito didn't get any more hurt than he already was since Aoko had far more important things on her mind than punishing the magician even more.

When they arrived at her house's entrance, she bid him farewell and hurried inside, starting to prepare her father's dinner.

Kaito waved her a goodbye as well and made his way home, thinking about what was still needed to be prepared today. Lunch. Homework. Heist. Right. And he the magician didn't even try to surpress that mischievous smirk on his lips.

-

So far, the heist had been going rather well. While the museum was surrounded by an impressive number of fans, despite the rain, the room, which contained tonight's gem, was barely filled with any people. As usual, the inspector was roaring his task force around, Hakuba tried to ignore the merry-go-round of the task force, focusing on the gem in question and Kid, who, incidentally, watched them all with a rather amused expression directly above the gem. Really, by now the inspector should start considering to watch the ventilation shafts. Putting that thought aside, Kid took one more glance at his watch and when the last second was counted, a small capsule dropped from above to the floor and before all attendants even noticed what happened, the small smoke bomb exploded. When everything became clear again no thief was seen. No gem as well. The chase began!

For a few minutes, Kid was everywhere and nowhere. Almost every police officer who caught as much as a glimpse of him either lost him immediately or became another victim of his pranks. Soon the chase continued outside of the museum, only about ten officers including inspector Nakamori and Hakuba, were able to follow him, somehow at least. The fans didn't even notice when the rest of the task force and Kid left the building through the backdoor exit.

Of course, Kid being Kid, he soon managed to put up a large distance between him and his followers and headed to the next alleyway to change his disguise and shake off those persistent police officers. He would've used his hang-glider if it wasn't raining so hard. And he couldn't ask Jii to drive him around all the time, so that wasn't an option.

Soon the thief reached the dark alley near the museum, only hearing the police distantly behind him. Well, he just needed to change into something less noticeable and leave, so the police could search another few hours for the missing thief.

Kid went deeper into the dark and wet alley and when he was just about the change his appearance, he noticed something lying further in the darkness. Or rather someone.

Slowly, a frown crept onto the magicians face and he approached the body lying only a few meters away from him and was able to make out the body of the person lying in front of him.

Apparently it was the body of a child. And it wasn't moving.

From his slow movements, Kid quickly knelt down to the young boy, hoping that he could prove his assumptions wrong. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do anymore. The boy had no pulse. He was dead.

Before the magician could continue his thoughts the police appeared in the entry of the alleyway. In the next second, the thief already disappeared in a puff of smoke and the screams of the police died when they noticed what was lying there in front of them.


End file.
